CAS or DTH: Who will have more access?

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CAS or DTH: Who will have more access?

Important transitions are happening in the entire television space.
Consumers will have to take a call on DTH or CAS very soon, at least
in the CAS notified areas.

Vikram Kaushik, managing director and CEO of Tata Sky, K Jayaraman,
CEO of Hathway and Jagjit Singh Kohli of Siti Cable discuss what their
products offer, thereby trying to help consumers make the most
suitable choice.

Excerpts from CNBC – TV18's exclusive interview with Vikram Kaushik, K
Jayaraman and Jagjit Singh Kohli:

Q: What is your assessment of how the level of adoption is moving and
at this stage what does it look like? Who has got the edge- DTH or
CAS?

Kaushik: I think the level of adoption is moving extremely well. We
have been very enthused by the early start that we had and Tata Sky
crossed a quarter of a million subscribers almost a fortnight ago. So
the adoption has been very fast. I just want to clarify that people
are talking about the introduction of CAS today but when we launched
satellite television, CAS was introduced because it's a conditional
access system. So what we offer by way of the satellite TV service is
CAS ++.

Q: Could you respond to that?

Jayaraman: Well I think our uptake of boxes on the CAS area has been
encouraging. We have been able to do more than 25-30% as of now. There
is not going to be a blackout on 30th-31st; we will have free-to-air
channels going into every home. Starting 31st onwards, when people
realise that they need to make a choice (we hope over the next 10-15
days), the people will exercise their choice. It is quite interesting
now that we have a competition to cable in the form of DTH.

The services are pretty similar; it is not anything plus-plus as
Vikram was saying. In fact the same amount of value-added services,
whether it is EPG (Electronic Program Guide), choice, gaming, or
quality, they are absolutely 1:1 (one-is-to-one).

The only thing would be that DTH should be bundled, whereas in CAS you
have an option of buying interesting packages like what Hathway had
announced, which gives them a discount of between 25-35% on the first
TV and more than 50% on the second TV.

For example, we are offering prices ranging from Rs 40-55. So there is
going to be far better advantage to the consumer because he will have
far better choice in CAS rather than in DTH.

Secondly, as compared to DTH, where one needs to buy a box shelling
out Rs 3000, ranging from Rs 1500-3000, in CAS, the entry barrier is
pretty easy. You can get a box for Rs 250 deposit and pay rental. So
the entry barrier is going to be pretty important in a country like
India initially.

So to that extent, cable will have a definite advantage. But at the
same time, I think DTH is going to be good competition and we will
stand up to the challenge and get not only vanilla cable watching but
will also get into PVR, DVR and stuff like that in future.

The other advantage that cable will have is that we will be able to
bundle our broadband internet through the same wire and offer them an
attractive package, which currently DTH would lack. Eventually even
broadband would be bundled along with that, for which we are setting
up our capacities. So cable will be purely triple play as definitely
compare to DTH, which will only be a video digital play.

Q: You have unveiled a package for Rs 1800 a year. Could you explain
that and how competitive will that package be, compared to a DTH
service?

Kohli: I don't need to explain how competitive it is - the price
itself explains everything. It is extremely attractive and the
response we have got to this package, which was announced just
yesterday afternoon has been overwhelming. I don't think anybody needs
to ask the question whether it is competitive. It is Rs 1800 for a
combo package, where you get a set-top box for keeps; there is no
rental after that. The set-top box is sold to the subscriber and along
with that, he gets the service of at least 25 pay channels along with
60-70 free-to-air regional channels for one year, free of cost.

We have also introduced a plain service package of Rs 600 for one
year, wherein you will get same minimum of 25 pay channels and about
70 odd FTA regional channels for one year and can opt for a box on a
rental scheme with an entry barrier of just Rs 250. I would just want
to add one more thing to what Jayaraman said in response to Vikram
Kaushik. I don't think it is a features battle. If it is a features
battle, cable wins hands down and WWIL, Wireless and Wireless India
that is Siti Cable, the boxes that we are introducing, in terms of
features they are far ahead of the best thing that DTH has to offer or
anything anybody else is offering.

For example, as Vikram rightly said, conditional access inbuilt into
every digital platform, whether it is DTH or cable, but features like
EPG and others are common to everybody. But the features which we are
offering which are not common to everybody for example we are ready to
offer internet on TV through a set-top box immediately, which is
impossible on DTH and which other MSOs also are not able to offer, as
of now.

We have a model that will offer VoIP that will have the facility of
making a VoIP call via a normal phone. So these kinds of features are
unthinkable on DTH. As I said, it is not a features battle. If it was,
I need to sit back and just announce my features; it is much more and
from the consumer point of view, it is price and service. On the price
front, we have announced a package, which is unbeatable.

Q: What is your respone to the two people from the cable side in terms
of features and pricing?

Kaushik: I am so grateful to both of them for having highlighted the
two key things, which are features and pricing. The first thing is
that nobody speaks of customer service and this is the irony of the
Indian television market all these years. Nobody really offered
customer service to television viewers. When it started getting
offered by companies like Tata Sky, everybody is now talking of
futuristic features such as internet. I think this is really getting
ahead of ourselves.

Let us focus on what the consumer is looking for today - he is looking
for a superior television viewing experience. It has been well
established and all 300,000 odd subscribers that we have are testimony
to both the quality of product as well as the quality of customer
service that a satellite TV service like Tata Sky offers.

Coming back to price, I think we are announcing a Golden Fortnight
starting today. We have decided in the CAS markets which is Delhi,
Mumbai and Kolkata to offer consumers six months of free service,
which is free viewing.

This means that if you have one television set at home, you will save
Rs 1800. If you have two, you can save upto Rs 2400. If you have
three, you will save upto Rs 3000 and if you have four sets at home,
you can save up to Rs 3600. The cost of getting a brand new Tata Sky
connection at home is Rs 4000. So if you really get four, you get
virtually one free and I think this kind of incentive has never been
available.

We are very clear - the quality of our product and service is
outstanding; it is proven. You can ask your neighbour if he has a
connection or relative or any acquaintance and I am very confident
that the testimony, which you will get, will be unequivocal.

When it comes to futuristic features and services, all the eight
interactive services that we offer today are available within this
price benefit. But talking of bundling services in the future, I
really do expect that technology still has to mature; the whole
business of cost and affordability still has to happen. The hardware
available in homes has to crystallize. There are too many
imponderables going into the future.

So I would like to bring this argument back to basics. You watch TV
and we will give you the best viewing experience. If you want customer
service and you will get that too. What is more - the cherry on the
cake today - we are giving you a minimum of Rs 1800 worth of free
viewing time starting now. So for the next six months, you don't have
to subscribe. So that is the deal and it is truly unmatchable in my
view.


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